Vlad the Impaler and two of his soldiers hoist swords at the festival.
Historical re-enactors depicting Vlad the Impaler and two of his soldiers hoist swords at the festival. Credit: Courtesy Photo / Dracula Fest

Creatures of the night and history buffs alike will be able to celebrate the real Dracula — Vlad the Impaler — at San Antonio’s Dracula Fest this October.

The annual festival will be held 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, at Rosedale Park on the inner West Side. The event promises a day of spooky history about the true Dracula — known as Vlad Tepes in Romanian — who famously displayed heads on spikes as a warning to his enemies.

However, the festival also will celebrate traditional Romanian cuisine, dance and other cultural arts of the region, according to organizers. Dishes featured at the event will include sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls served with polenta and sour cream), mici (skinless sausages served with fries and mustard), langosi (flat, fried bread served with toppings), ciorba de pui (a type of sour chicken soup) and fasole cu carnati afumat, a new menu item comprised of beans with smoked sausages.

Traditional sweets also will feature on the menu, including poale-n brau (sweet cheese pie), savarina (mini-Savarin desserts served with preserves and whipped cream), placinta de mere (Romanian apple pie) and cozonac (sweet walnut bread, served by the slice or whole).

Traditional Romanian bread delicately slices on top in an intricate pattern.
Traditional Romanian bread delicately sliced on top in an intricate pattern. Credit: Courtesy Photo / Dracula Fest

The event’s cultural components will include performances of Romanian folk dance in full traditional regalia as well as a booth selling crafts made by women in Romania.

It might surprise some to learn that San Antonio has a small but proud Romanian community, which immigrated from East Europe decades ago but maintains the region’s traditions, food and culture as a way to remain connected to the motherland.

“We come from far away, from different regions of Romania (Moldavia, Transylvania, Wallachia, etc.) and we became Texans by adoption and in spirit,” organizer Adina Pasnicu said in an email to the Current. “Texans with a huge Romanian heart.”

Pasnicu insists that Dracula wasn’t just a real person but a hero to the Romanian people.

“When Bram Stoker wrote his novel, he based the main character, Dracula, on a real person, Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Tepes in Romanian), prince of Wallachia,” said Pasnicu. “Vlad lived in the 15th century and for us, Romanians, he was a hero, a defender of the country, a guardian of language, a defender of Christianity.”

In his lifetime, Vlad the Impaler embraced his nickname of Dracula and even signed letters with the sobriquet, which was based on his father’s name Vlad Dracul, or Vlad the Dragon.

This is the seventh installment of the annual festival in his honor. The event is organized by the St. John Cassian Romanian Orthodox Church as a fundraiser for the religious center and the cultural community it serves. Pasnicu said the gathering also provides a way for San Antonio’s tight-knit Romanian community to share its traditions and heritage with neighbors in its adopted homeland.

“Many of us left Romania 20, 30 or more years ago, but we still carry Romania in our hearts, its music, dances, food, language, and religion (Orthodox),” Pasnicu said. “Organizing the festival was not only a way of raising funds to build, at that time, our own Orthodox Church here in San Antonio, but also a way of introducing our fellow Texas to our culture, music, and… food.”

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This article appears in Sep 3-17, 2025.

Stephanie Koithan is the Digital Content Editor of the San Antonio Current. In her role, she writes about politics, music, art, culture and food. Send her a tip at skoithan@sacurrent.com.